What Does Mellitus Mean?

The word mellitus comes from the Latin and means honey sweet. Today the word is most often associated with diabetes diabetes mellitus, which is a disease that affects more than two million people in the UK alone.

There are two different types of diabetes: Type one and type two, with type two being the most common. Type one diabetes means that the body is unable to make insulin; type two means that the body cannot respond to the effects of insulin. Insulin is the hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar levels and there are many real dangers if the disease is left untreated.

Type one diabetes is usually diagnosed in people under the age of 20, but this is not always the case, whereas type two diabetes is usually a disease that older people get and is often linked to being overweight.

It is possible to get checked for type two diabetes before you actually get the disease, and therefore, avoid it altogether if you make some lifestyle changes. Unfortunately, there are no symptoms for pre-diabetes (or impaired glucose tolerance) even though it is nearly always present in people before they actually acquire full blown diabetes.

The symptoms to look for if you think that you have got type two diabetes are being constantly thirsty, frequently needing to urinate, being extremely tired, or having blurred vision.

Type one diabetes means that the person who has it will need to inject insulin regularly to maintain the correct blood sugar balance in their bodies. There are a few different ways of treating type two diabetes depending upon its severity ranging from controlling it through diet alone, to having to take oral medication, to having to inject insulin. Your doctor will decide which is the best method for you, but it is vital that you take your instructions seriously if you want to avoid serious health issues.

The word Mellitus comes from the Latin word "mellitus" meaning honey-sweet. It is a word closely associated with diabetes as in diabetes mellitus. It started being associated with diabetes when 'uroscopy' or the analysis of urine to identify the type of disease came along. Some extra enthusiastic physicians went to the extent of tasting the urine in their quest to classify the disease. On tasting the urine of diabetics they found it to be sweet tasting. Thus was given the second name of Mellitus to diabetes, meaning honey. These days the unconventional method of chemical analysis is used to detect excess sugar in urine.

Mellitus can also refer to Saint Mellitus who became the first ever Bishop of London in 604 and later the third Archbishop of Canterbury.